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Kuat was a standard terrestrial planet of clouds, water, and land. Unlike other planets in the galaxy, a single, large man-made ring circled its equator. Serving as Kuat Drive Yards legendary shipyards, the ring appeared to galactic citizenry as an immense scaffold in space, bridged and augmented with enormous habitats and machinery. Inside the scaffolding existed the skeletons of ships and other craft, with tiny bright dots drifting to and from the ships under construction with the habitats of the station. The orbital ring had a total inhabitable area of less than three hundred thousand square kilometers, thus making its livable space smaller than a typical planetary substation.[3]

Due to the planet's geopolitical significance, its defenses were formidable. Guarded by a significant ground-based garrison along with a large Imperial fleet, its defenses were considered nearly impenetrable, with a large percentage directed towards space combat.[3]

During the age of the Galactic Republic, ships and other equipment for the Republic's peacekeeping forces would often be produced by Kuat Drive Yards, especially during the three-year conflict known as the Clone Wars.[9]

Following the Empire's loss of its first Death Star, the rebellion seized the initiative and launched attacks against the Empire's assets spread across the galaxy, including bombing the Imperial shipyards at Kuat, although without much impact.[3]

After the Battle of Hoth, Kuat became part of the elaborate Operation Ringbreaker, a plan designed by former Imperial GovernorEveri Chalis with remnants of the Alliance's Sixty-First Mobile Infantry to assault and destroy the shipyards by exploiting the station's space-based defenses. Planning to board the station in a rapid-strike, ground-based infantry teams would disable vital manufacturing equipment and sever whole blocks of the station through internal sabotage. In order to accomplish this task, diversionary assaults would be redirected at essential nodes in the Imperial logistical network to force fleet redeployment from Kuat, thus further enervating its defenses as an already stretched Imperial Navy pursued shattered Rebel elements deep into the Outer Rim Territories. After initial success, the plan was abandoned following a prolonged and costly engagement on Sullust,[3] resulting in Kuat's continued production of critical assets to the Imperial cause until the end of the war—two years later.[1]